Retirement, although it is in a player’s control, sometimes does not happen at one’s discretion. Usually, most players would want to hang up their boots with a particular milestone achieved. However, a few unlucky players have to retire with them being agonizingly short of a major personal milestone. In this article, we take a look at two South African legends who retired with one short of a personal milestone.
1) Mark Boucher – 999 International Catches+Stumpings
Tests-147 | Dismissals-555 || ODIs-295 | Dismissals-425 || T20Is-25 | Dismissals-19
In 2012, while playing in England, Imran Tahir bowled Somerset’s Gemaal Hussain, and the bail hit Mark Boucher‘s eye. Unfortunately, he was not wearing any protective gear or glasses. The bail stuck his eye, and this injury forced him to retire from the game.
At that point in time, Boucher was 36 years old, and he had few more years of cricket left in him. He would have surely breached the 1000-mark, thereby becoming the first cricketer to do so. That said, Boucher is still the leader when it comes to most wicket-keeping dismissals. He has 998 dismissals as a WK while he has taken one catch in an ODI as a fielder. The second is Adam Gilchrist with 905 contributions behind the wicket. Hence, Boucher is also one of the South African legends who retired with one short of a personal milestone.
2) Dale Steyn – 699 International Wickets
Tests-93 | Wickets-439 || ODIs-125 | Wickets-196 || T20Is-47 | Wickets-64
On 31st August 2021, Dale Steyn announced his retirement from the game. After a stellar career with the Proteas, the pacer called time on his career without giving any hint of it. While he last played an ODI and Test in 2019, Steyn’s last international game was a T20I against Australia in 2020.
Steyn is one of the legends who retired with one short of a personal milestone. The cricketer will have his record books with a total of 699 international wickets. In the current era when most players like to achieve targets, Steyn falling short of one scalp could be one undesired statistic in his career.
